As devices are added to and removed from a server rack, for example, determining where a device is installed within the rack without aid of instrumentation in the rack itself or manual input of placement data may become a difficult task.
Cabling of the storage rack has been considered for performing such a task, where the cabling may allow the administrator to infer position of devices from switch port assignments. In this consideration, the rack network cables may be routed at the time the rack is assembled and equipment placed into it. Then, based upon which port the discovered device is connected to on the top-of-rack switch, the administrator may assign a rack location. The cabling method has drawbacks and may therefore be an insufficient method of determining where a device is installed within a rack. One drawback is that changes to the installed components may result in a change in cabling throughout various parts of the device rack, requiring a change to the assignment schema, which is a manual process.
Another drawback of this method may be that administrators may need access to network switch port information in order to establish rack location. However, this information may be sensitive and/or not generally available to the system administrator.
Yet another drawback of this method is that the schema may be subject to errors in cabling within the rack or plugging of cables at the top-of-rack switch interface.
Instrumenting racks themselves with active or passive assistance to communicate position information to the installed devices has also been considered in an attempt to determine where a device is installed within the rack without manual input of placement data. Instrumenting racks in such a way has proved to be unsuccessful, as installed devices are often incompatible with the attempted solution, and additional hardware for interfacing with the rack is costly.
In yet another considered solution, rack location information is manually established via either a bulk import of data provided by the administrator and/or rack builder. Rack location information has also been manually established via inputting information, e.g., scanning barcodes, scanning QR codes, scanning RFID tags, etc., from the rack into an application on the installed hardware and then correlating such information with rack positions. These approaches have proven unsuccessful and/or undesirable, as such reconfigurations are frequently not detected without manual means and erroneous inputs are often not detectable.